The Puissalicon wind farm challenged by the Council of State

Le projet des éoliennes sur les collines de Puissalicon a été rejeté par le conseil d'Etat. J.-P A. – Midi Libre

The Volkswind group, which wanted to set up a wind farm with four machines in Puissalicon, lost its case before the Council of State against the Sauvegarde des 7 collines association. The end of a fight of several years for opponents of a project rejected by the inhabitants of this town, but also of neighboring villages.

The Safeguarding the Landscape of the 7 Hills association can savor its victory in its fight against the establishment of a wind farm on the heights of Puissalicon. In fact, the appeal of the company Ferme ouverture de Puissalicon, a subsidiary of the Volkswind group, was rejected before the Council of State in a judgment rendered this Wednesday, January 10.

"I didn't believe it, confided Nathalie who learned the news on Sunday morning. In principle, I never check the association's emails on Sundays and I still don't know why I did it. But I was waiting for the decision of the Council of State. And there, I came across this email which announced to me the end of this battle. I wasn't reassured because until then, all the decisions were unfavorable to the plaintiffs." Maryze goes there free of charge. "We popped the champagne when we read this report. Our landscape will not be disfigured and biodiversity will be protected. It was still a shame to imagine that such a project could be done without the will of the inhabitants and not only from here. No municipality wanted these wind turbines."

Disappointed people, private investors

It is therefore a page that is turning for all the members of the association which has been struggling for years to avoid seeing the village disappear "disfigure". It remains to be seen what the attitude of many inhabitants of Puissalicon will be, who, believing they are making a financial investment, find themselves with money invested and no economic benefits.

Hélène invested some savings in this probable project. "I believed it. It wasn't a big report that we were promised, but still more interesting than in a bank. Now I don't know how we are going to recoup our investment. I hope that society will not make it difficult for us to return what we have given." Hélène wants to remain discreet about her investment, but she still regrets. "At a time of climate change, the need for renewable energy, I don't understand that we are there."

A motivated opposition

What played a role in this fight against the construction of these machines was mobilization. "There was unanimous, motivated and determined opposition to the realization of the project, insists Michèle Solans of the TNE-OE association, another opponent of poorly planned wind projects in Hérault. There was the population, but also the authorized local authorities who defended themselves, which was also forcefully underlined by the investigating commissioner who issued an unfavorable opinion on this project."

And when you take the report of more than 120 pages, it's not just a no. The decision is reasoned, detailed and argued. "The photos  who presented the projects were misleading, misdirected, explains Dominique, another member of the Puissalicon association. Too many elements were not going in the right direction and the investigating commissioner saw it. The company had not carried out a nature impact study and it wrote it. In view of all these details, even the municipality of Puissalicon, which was more than favorable to this project, finally changed its mind and sided with all the neighboring municipalities which did not want not these wind turbines." Logically, the case is closed

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